Video Game Piracy

In this editorial I’ll refer not to the hackers that simply turn the game in their favor by another set of skills, no to do with the games, but the ones who just buy games on pirate bay. A 30 dollar game without any cooperative mode or competitive features, that you are only going to play the campaign mode and throw it in a drawer to grow dust, it shouldn’t cost that much. In fact, I think it shouldn’t cost at all.

If games come with multiplayer mode, the campaign is probably going to be played once, or once at every difficulty. If the campaign was giving free, which their description is already a tutorial for multiplayer, it would be great.

Also to reduce prices, you can rely on online purchases, which supposes to remove a few shekels of the price. Then why resolve to piracy? It’s free. In behavioral economy, giving something for free attracts consumers. That’s why I’m imploring that you have to give something for free, so they will buy more out of other reasons such as connection to the brand later.

Is piracy stoppable? No. Is it bad? Yes. As much as someone like me, who was tempted a few times, I know this harms the company’s future efforts of releasing sequels and transforming a game into a franchise. It is also a crime, but a “gray” crime because it is done against an archaic distribution system. To blame the gamers a bit, when opportunity arises, it is only logical to pay less; especially free for something you had to pay anyhow.

One good thing about piracy  that is worth mentioning. Games from the past are kept and can be found online and played by anybody. What can developers do to reduce piracy? They can give certain aspects for free, and based their income on cooperative and competitive elements. They can have in-game advertisement. They can sell merchandise and micro transactions. 2 words about micro transactions’ of importance: Maple Story. A game that is played more than WoW and has 10 times more accounts and show only signs of growth both in players an income, this exhibits how you can make money even with piracy all around.

About hacking, that is just evil. It destroys the enjoyment of the game by making it way too easy and makes you lose all interests. Stealing rare hats from other players’ accounts in Team Fortress 2 is just evil, and Valve has no way to stop it. So the focus has to be on hacking, and not on piracy, that can be solved by a better business plan.